Petraeus Just Another Mystery Victim in the Benghazi Triangle

Watch out! There is a cosmic force at work. One by one, people caught up in the Benghazi Triangle are disappearing.

First it was AFRICOM commander General Carter F. Ham who was given early retirement. Ham’s sphere of military authority extended to Benghazi.

Then Rear Admiral Charles M. Gaouette, who commanded the aircraft carrier attack task group in the Mediterranean near Benghazi, was recalled to Bremerton pending a Navy Inspector General investigation.

And now another coincidental “resignation” in the chain of command working the Benghazi overwatch is either pointing to a cosmic force at work, or gasp! a cover up.

A cover-up in the Obama administration?

I know what you are thinking: No way; not the most transparent, patriotic administration ever.

It must be an act of the gods or perhaps the Mayan calendar.

But really, the recent resignation of General Petraeus from the position of director of the C.I.A. has to be related to Benghazi. Either that or to the Bermuda Triangle.

Because here is another remarkable coincidence: Neither the FBI, nor United States Marines are responsible for the security of consulates and embassies.

The C.I.A. is tasked with that job.

Yes, the C.I.A. that most recently was headed by General David Petraeus.

That C.I.A was also responsible for almost all the communications traffic between Benghazi and the State Department. The comms room at State is literally staffed by ex-C.I.A. specialists.

So now not only do we have three people in the chain of command who were tasked with protecting the embassy, who have suddenly and mysteriously fallen victim to the Benghazi Triangle; we also have the resignation of the very top person responsible for the communications that’s being called into question between State and the consulate.

Notice how quickly the deputy director who is replacing Petraeus is ready to stand before congress next week and truthfully testify by saying “I don’t know, Senator”?

I suppose that's just an unintended benefit of the Petraeus resignation.

While the Pentagon cover stories on Ham and Gaouette look credible, the Petraeus coincidence is implausible outside of intervention by the Lost City of Atlantis.

You know what else is implausible?

That somehow the C.I.A. security office didn’t know that Petraeus was having an affair with Paula Broadwell, or that F.B.I. really cares that Petraeus was having an affair with someone who has a security clearance.

As the F.B.I. has admitted: This is neither a matter of national security or of criminal action.

I hate to tell you this, but senior intelligence and defense officials have been having affairs for a long time. They are so insulated from the ordinary hustle of real life that it’s virtually impossible for the director of the C.I.A. to keep an affair as anything other than an open secret. The C.I.A. is very comfortable handling stuff like this in-house and making sure it doesn’t present a problem.

The rule is that the F.B.I. only proceeds in an investigation in matters pertaining to actual security breaches inside the domestic intelligence community. Absent an actual threat to national security, the F.B.I. would usually look the other way, even accounting for the longtime animosity between the C.I.A. and the F.B.I.

Here’s what else I know: There is no way that the F.B.I. investigated this for months and somehow just recently stumbled upon the affair between Petraeus and Broadwell.

Nor did they suddenly decide that they had to tell the White House the night of the election.

The F.B.I. and everyone else says that this is a personal matter, not a matter of law.

“This is a very personal matter, not a matter of intelligence,” a senior U.S. intelligence official told the Washington Post. “There are protocols for this. I would imagine things have to cross a certain threshold before they are reportable.”

John Ransom is the Finance Editor for Townhall Finance, host of Ransom Notes Radio and you can catch more of the best money advice and monetary commentary by him daily 10am PT, 1pm ET at WealthEd.com or on Comcast Cable.

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